Thursday, March 05, 2009

Did McCaskill Prevent Reid From Getting to 60?

The Senate has put off until next week a final vote on a $410 billion catchall spending bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was one vote short of the 60 votes needed to advance the measure.

The right is already cheering about setback. "Senate Majority leader Harry Reid took to the Senate floor tonight and admitted he lost," wrote Phil Kerpen of Americans for Prosperity.

CNN's Dana Bash reported that while Democratic Senators Evan Bayh and Russ Feingold announced that would not vote for the spending bill because of the high cost, Sen. Claire McCaskill was still weighing her vote Thursday.

Some are now speculating whether McCaskill was one of the undecided or "no" votes that prevented Reid from getting to 60 votes.

"We don’t know exactly who opposed it because the vote didn’t take place, but we have a pretty good idea. Three Democrats–Evan Bayh, Russ Feingold, and Claire McCaskill–have looked at the bill’s pork-barrel-earmarks-as-usual and said enough’s enough. Based on the outcome tonight, there is a good chance that they backed up their public statements with a firm commitment to vote against the bill," wrote Kerpen.

McCaskill spokeswoman Adrianne Marsh said, "There was no vote. They're allowing amendments tomorrow so the vote was postponed until Monday."

But when The Notebook asked Marsh if McCaskill was ready to sign on, she replied that since there was no vote, it would be difficult to tell. "She was undecided as of this evening," Marsh wrote, via text message.

UPDATE 7:35 AM FRI:Marsh spoke with McCaskill Friday morning and learned that McCaskill said she had planned to vote for the bill. "However, Senator Snowe insisted on opening the bill up for amendments," Marsh said.